posted 11-08-2004 08:47 PM
I had the good fortune to attend the X-Prize award ceremony held in St. Louis this last weekend. The ceremony was held at a high school football stadium located adjacent to the St. Louis Science Center. In attendence was Burt Rutan, Brian Binnie, Pete Siebold, Paul Allen, Ansouleh Ansari, many Scaled Composites and X-Prize Foundation employees and two shuttle astronauts including Byron Lichtenberg. Mike Melville attended later in the day after he flew over the stadum in one of Rutan's futuristic planes. Before the ceremony, all parties involved signed autographs which was made easy as volunteers carried signs with the names of the guests. The impressive looking award and the 10 million dollar check were then awarded and speeches were given by the principles including Eric Lindbergh, grandson of Charles Lindbergh.

After the award was given, everyone went to the science center where more autographs were signed and educational items were displayed. Bert Rutan was wandering the halls and I was able to have my photograph taken with him. He later gave a talk in the planetarium which was funny and colorful.

The organizers did a great job and overall it was a blast!

Patrick Franklin

WehaveliftoffMember

Posts: 728From: Registered: Aug 2001

posted 11-09-2004 07:59 AM
There was a good overview on TV's "60 minutes" with Mr. Bradley and Melville,etc this past Sunday. Great job.